Bill Kennedy, I would hardly call Hiroshima - a major manufacturing center for armaments - and Nagasaki - a major port and ship-building facility- civilian targets nor would I characterize the Home Islands of Japan as defensless.
Obviously, you have a very different take on WWII than I do.
I am aware that popular revisionist history claims that the use of the A-bomb was unnecessary, that Japan was on the verge of surrender. This, I assume, assuages some sort of guilt felt by some that the US ended (and won) the war with no more loss of American life. I,d suggest that you remember that we didn't start the war and then read about the Rape of Nanking and Shanghai, two actions that the Japanese Government has yet to formally acknowledge.
Lastly, if saving American lives (and possibly countless Japanese lives) and ending a war in which the US was NOT the agressor nation comprises a evil and cynical action, then the sacrifices made by the countless Americans who fought the Japanese and those at home who lost family members may be termed futile and of no value.

troll